ASUU! Meeting with the President (Overview)

PRESIDENT Goodluck
Jonathan, on Monday,
held
a long meeting with the
leadership of the
Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU), at
the Presidential Villa,
Abuja.
As of the time of going
to
press around 11.30 p.m,
the meeting, which
started around 2.45 p.m,
was still ongoing. ASUU,
it will be recalled,
commenced strike to
press home its
demands
and fulfilment on the
part
of the government, the
agreement they both
signed in 2009.
Leaders of the striking
ASUU, on Monday,
abandoned the cozy
conference hall of the
First
Lady wing of the
Presidential Villa, venue
of
their meeting with
President Goodluck
Jonathan, to meet
inside a
Toyota bus to consider
proposal put before
them in a meeting with
the
president.
They had been locked in
the meeting with the
president for about
three
and half hours before
emerging, only to hop
into the bus parked
outside the venue,
apparently to have a
private discussion that
could not be monitored
by government agents.
The initial meeting with
the president
commenced
at about 2.45 p.m and
lasted till about 6.30
p.m,
after which the
president left for his
residence,
while the ASUU leaders
walked out of the First
Lady's wing, only to
enter
the parked bus to
continue their
deliberation over what
had been put
before them by the
president.
When State House
correspondents made
attempts to get the
lecturers to talk, some
of
them replied that they
would return to
continue
their discussions with
the
president.
They did disembark
from the bus after
about 24
minutes to return to
the
meeting and were later
joined by President
Jonathan.
The meeting continued
till late in the night.
Before the
commencement of the
meeting, President
Jonathan had, in a
lighter
mood, told them that all
the contending issues
must be resolved during
the meeting to enable
students to go back to
school.
While exchanging
pleasantries with ASUU
president, he said "my
president, all the
problems
will be over today. Our
children must go back to
school. With you here,
we are covered. It is
signed,
sealed and delivered."
With President Jonathan
were Vice President
Namadi Sambo;
Secretary
to Government of the
Federation (SGF),
Senator
Pius Ayim; Coordinating
Minister for the
Economy
and Minister of Finance,
Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala;
Minister of Labour, Chief
Emeka Nwogu;
Supervising Minister of
Education, Nyesom Wike
and the Executive
Secretary, National
Universities Commission
(NUC), Professor Julius
Okojie.
On the ASUU side were
its
national president, Dr
Nasir
Fagge, Professor Festus
Iyayi, Professor Dipo
Fashina and Professor
Abdulahi Sule Kano, who
were joined by
president
of the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC),
Abdulwaheed Omar; his
Trade Union Congress
(TUC)
counterpart, Bobboi
Kaigama, among others.
Earlier, a meeting
between
Senate President, David
Mark and the union
leadership did not yield
the desired result.
Mark had been
mandated
by the Senate, about
two
weeks ago, to mediate
in
the disagreement
between the unversity
lecturers and the
Federal
Government, over the
non- implementation of
the 2009 agreement by
the
government. Speaking
with newsmen
after a closed-door
session
with Senator Mark,
ASUU
president, Dr Fagge, said
the intervention by the
Senate president was a
welcome development
in
the effort to get the
crisis
sorted out and for the
universities to be re-
opened.
Before the closed-door
meeting, Senator Mark
said "as you are aware,
I
have been mandated by
the Senate to meet
with
you and the Federal
Government to resolve
this crisis as soon as
possible, so that the
children will go back to
the classrooms and I
believe that is what you
also want." Dr Fagge, on
his part,
noted that "members
of
ASUU are not just
lecturers, we are also
parents and also among
us, we have students
who are pursuing post-
graduate degrees. So
this
strike directly affects
us
negatively."
SOURCE .. NATIONAL
TRIBUNE